


Patient (Day 1096)

by Slytheringirl093



Series: 2199 days [1]
Category: The 100 (TV), The 100 Series - Kass Morgan
Genre: F/M, Speculation, six years
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-05
Updated: 2018-10-05
Packaged: 2019-07-25 17:05:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,120
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16201886
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Slytheringirl093/pseuds/Slytheringirl093
Summary: “What about Echo?”Clarke was startled at the question. She had never asked about Echo before.“What about her?”  Clarke asked, uncertain.Madi just shrugged.“ I don’t know. You don’t talk much about her, I guess. ”Clarke sighed. Didn’t she? It’s not like she kept track of all the stories. Maybe Madi was right.“ You never asked about her before”“ Yeah, probably”They were sitting against a tree, right in front a small lake. It was one of their favorite spots from Eden, especially during the night, when they could watch the moon dancing on the surface of the water. Madi found it calming . Sometimes they brought food so they could having dinner enjoying the view. Most of the times Madi asked for a story.It was day 1096.3 years and one day.Clarke was running out of stories.Or, the one time Madi asked Clarke about Echo.





	Patient (Day 1096)

**Author's Note:**

> Hi there!
> 
> First of all I want to set a couple of things straight:
> 
> a) English is not my first language ( so, please be kind)  
> b) I don't have a beta-reader (so, please be VERY kind with me)
> 
> Okay! So this is the first work of a collection that I intend to start called "2199 days". What happened in those six years? The show doesn't give us flashback? Well, I decided to imagine my own CANON version of events, which of course will respect everything that happened in s05. 
> 
> I wanted to start with Echo, because I think the character deserves to be discussed a little bit more. The fact that I am a proud Bellarke shipper, doesn't mean that I dislike Echo. I don't. I'm going to be honest, I always knew that at some point in the show they were going for a Becho relationship. They set it up from season 2, hence the famous "we found each other in a cage". It was already there, it's good to get it out of the system. Sure, they could have done that BEFORE she killed or tried to LITERALLY EVERYONE BELLAMY CARED ABOUT ( that would have made sense). Basically, I get BECHO, but it should have happened at the end of s02 or the beginning of s03 (not NOW). That said, I wish I could have seen a better development for Echo's character, aside from the Bellarke obstacle they set up (because let's be real, there's NO WAY Bellarke isn't endgame). Also, I was curious about the Clarke/Echo interaction (that we will probably get in s06). 
> 
> This fiction is basically what I imagined happened when Madi got curious enough to ask Clarke about Echo, since I don't think she was a main character of their bedtime stories.
> 
> Let me know what you think!

“What about _Echo_?”

Clarke was startled at the question. _She had never asked about Echo before_.

“What about her?”  Clarke asked, uncertain.

Madi just shrugged.

“ I don’t know. You don’t talk much about her, I guess. ”

Clarke sighed. _Didn’t she?_ It’s not like she kept track of all the stories. Maybe Madi was right.

“ You never asked about her before” 

“ Yeah, probably”

They were sitting against a tree, right in front a small lake. It was one of their favorite spots from Eden, especially during the night, when they could watch the moon dancing on the surface of the water. Madi found it _calming_ . Sometimes they brought food so they could having dinner enjoying the view. Most of the times Madi asked for _a story_. 

It was day **1096**.

 **3 years and one day**.

Clarke was _running out of stories_.

“ It’s just…” Madi seemed uncertain “ She’s a _grounder_. Just like me”

“ You want to know more about her?” Clarke asked gently.

“ Yeah. I mean… if you want to”

Of course. _Echo_ was a _grounder_ , just like _Madi_. Three years of stories about the hundred kids from space and their adventures on the ground. Never once, though, she had talked about the _grounder that went into space_.

“ Sure. You want to lay dawn?”

Madi nodded with a light smile and laid her head over Clarke’s stomach, looking at the stars above her.

“ Ready” she said, once settled.

Clarke dramatically cleared her throat, making Madi chuckle.

 _Okay_. Echo’s story. _Where to begin_?

Clarke didn’t know much about her, or her story and frankly what she _did_ know or remember weren’t  happy tales. Echo was definitely _not a hero_. All Clarke remembered about her were painful memories, stories of betrayal and death. The only slightly less cruel memory she had of her, was when she saved them from the attack the day of Praimfaya. Even then, though, it was not about doing the right thing. It was about _survival_. She wanted to be saved. And she _did_ what thought was necessary to gain a spot on the surviving “team”.

“ …Clarke? ”

Madi’s voice brought her back. The little girl was facing her with a puzzled look on her face.

“ Sorry. I just … I just realized that I really don’t know much about her” Clarke admitted.

“ It’s okay. You don’t have to tell me _her story_. Just tell me how she was. If she’s up there with your friends, she must be… _special_ ”

“ Emori is up there, too. She’s also a grounder like you”

“ Yeah, but… she’s there because of Murphy. He loved her, right? So, that’s way she’s there. But Echo? She’s not there because she has someone who loved her. She wasn’t friend with anybody. And yet she’s there”

The way she spoke, she must have thought about this for quite some time, Clarke realized. Her question was legitimate, of course. _Why Echo?_

The truth? _There’s not an answer to that question_. It was more of a  She-saved-them-they-saved-her kind of thing. Simple as that.

But something in the way Madi said _special_ made her think that this wasn’t the answer she was looking for. _Why did you save her, Clarke?_ That was the real question.

“ Echo is…” started even if she wasn’t really sure how to continue.

“ … brave?” Madi tried, and Clarke found herself nodding slowly.

“Yeah. She _is brave_ and also she is _loyal_ to her people”

It was true. Roan use to talk about her loyalty, _the most dangerous of her qualities_ – he had told her. Willing to do anything – _literally_ _anything_ -  to serve, to protect.

“ She is a warrior, a very good one” she added, feeling the words rolling up her tongue.

“ Does she use a sword?”

“ Yes and she’s very scary when she holds it” Clarke said remembering quite _clearly_ the one time she held the sword against her own throat, the day after defeating A.L.I.E.

“ She is also good with a bow and arrow. I think that’s her weapon of choice”

“ Is she better than Octavia?” Madi suddenly asked, worried for her own _hero_ to lose her spotlight as the bravest and strongest female badass warrior in Clarke’s stories.

“ I think it would be a fair fight. But personally… I’d never bet against Octavia” Clarke admitted with a wink and Madi smile proudly.

Nobody should bet against Octavia Blake. That’s a lesson Clarke learned the hard way. She blocked out the memory long ago, but in some of her worst nightmares she could still hear _him,_ screaming and pleading to let him go, to open the bunker. The heart-wrenching feeling in her gut as she held the gun, pointing at him, trying to make him understand. She could still hear him, his words echoing in her ears, her heart shattering all over again – _you’ll have to make it a killer shot_.

“ So…” Madi started, and Clarke shook her head, putting her memories aside. She didn’t need to remember that during the day, too. _Her nightmares were enough._

“ She’s a warrior, she’s loyal, she’s brave, she’s scary… she seems kind of a badass”

“ I guess she is ” agreed Clarke.  

“ But you didn’t like her”

Clarke sighed. It wasn’t a question, just an observation.

“ Well… we were on opposite sides. We were enemy. She was an extremely good asset to the other team and made some serious damage to our side”

“ Did she _hurt_ you?” Madi asked, carefully, worry rapidly spreading all over her young features.

“ She tried a couple of times. Never succeeded, though”

“ You never told me that”

“ It’s not… I don’t hold it against her. She was executing orders”

“ But… I don’t get it”

“ Madi…”

“ If she was the enemy…”

“ I know...”

She didn’t even know why she was _defending her_. She didn’t deserve it. But still, she found herself trying to. _It’s not about her -_  a voice in her head kept suggesting - _it’s about you_. She did _horrible things_ – just like you. If she can be saved, _you can be saved_.

“ Why did you save her?” Madi asked, clearly confused.

“ Because everyone deserve a second chance, Madi. Even Echo”

Madi opened her mouth but no words followed. She curled up on the side facing Clarke and watched her in silence for a minute, before slowly closing her eyes.

Clarke knew it wasn’t over. Still, she decided to just enjoy the silence for the time being.

They had time, after all.

 

_

 

“ I’m sorry”

Clarke furrowed her brows in confusion.

“ What for?”

“  For asking about Echo”  Madi whispered.

“ You don’t have to be sorry, Madi. You just wanted to hear a story”

“ Yeah… Well, she’s not a great character”

“ Maybe she is. We really don’t know _her side_ of the story”

“Why are you defending her?”

Clarke sighted. Of course, Madi couldn’t understand. She had just wanted to hear the story of the _grounder who went up in space_ and ended up listening to a confusing description of a badass warrior who was on the wrong side of the war and still, got to be saved.

“ Because I don’t _really_ know her, Madi”

There was truth behind that statement. She didn’t really know _her_. Yes, she was the enemy, but at some point she had been an ally, along with Roan. They didn’t really interact that much, also because the only sky-person she was willing to talk to was …

“… _Bellamy…_ ”

“ What?”

“ Do you remember when I told you about Mount Weather?” Clarke asked. Madi nodded, not quite understanding the connection.

“ The _white_ prison” Madi recalled.

Clarke had _changed_  the story a little bit. Not the crucial part, but she spared the kid some details. The “white prison” was more of a metaphor, then a real thing. It had been how she had explained to Madi that Mount Weather had prisoners that didn’t feel like prisoners, the white clearly hinting at the walls of the first room Clarke woke up in. She told Madi about the cages, too (she already knew, since some of the prisoners had been taken from Shadow Valley).

“ Echo was a prisoner too. She was in a cage” Clarke explained. Madi seemed taken aback by that.

“ She was a prisoner?”

“ Yes. And she helped Bellamy”

She had almost forgot about that. Bellamy told her on the way to Arkadia, after defeating ALIE. She had always wanted to ask how he and Echo knew each other, but never had the time to ask it before. When she did, he briefly told her the story.

“ Bellamy was captured and put in a cage right next to her. That’s how they met”

“ But you never told me this part!”

“ Neither did Bellamy. I found out much later…”

It had been painful. Like a _sharp knife in her gut_. If not for her curiosity about his history with Echo, Bellamy probably had never any intention to tell her about the cage. He had let it slip just once – _Hey, try doing that hanging upside-down._ At the time she didn’t think he was talking about _personal experience_. But then he told her, _like it was not big deal_ , like his _suffering_ was worth it. She could have told him, _then_. She could have told him that she had cursed herself so many times for sending him away – _It’s worth the risk_. But she didn’t. They had no time to spare. _As soon as we are saved_ – she kept telling to herself, pushing those feelings back.

“ … and she helped him escape?”  Madi asked, bringing her back to the present. Clarke smiled.

“ Yes. She trusted him. She had no reason to, but she did. And he came back and freed her, too”

She wouldn’t tell Madi which was the _exact kind of help_ that she gave, since it was basically _aid to murder_ but in the end, she _did_ help him. If not for her, and for _Maya_ …

“ She trusted him, even if she had no reason to…” Madi commented suddenly looking over one of the many drawings hanged on the walls of their cabin. There were a lot of drawings, every character of the stories had his own drawing.

“ It all starts with _one_ _brave choice_ ,  Madi” and she found herself agreeing with her choice of words. Just _one brave choice_ , it’s all you need.

“ But they weren’t friends, weren’t they? What happened later?” Madi asked, suddenly curious about the turning of events. She wasn’t expecting a _friendship_ story.

“ She _hurt him_. Not physically, but ... she did some damage”

“ He saved her and she hurt him?”

“ She betrayed him, and people died for it”

There was no need to sweeten it. This was the plain truth. Madi was starting to putting the pieces together. She was starting to see the _grey_ , putting aside the _black and white._

“ Opposite sides of the war. She was loyal to her side, not to Bellamy”

“ Exactly”

“ So she just didn’t care about him? Even after he came back to save her?”

Clarke chuckled, even if there wasn’t anything funny about it. She _did_ care. That much was clear. She saw it with her own eyes. The way her eyes lingered on him when he wasn’t looking. The façade of a warrior that trembled when he was in front of her, trying to reason with her. The look in her eyes when she saw him hesitating when deciding to save her and take her with them. Clarke _saw_ it all.

“ I think she did. But you can’t afford to have _feelings_ when you are constantly trying to survive”

“  Feelings? You think she…”

“ I think so.”

Madi sighted, gently covering Clark’s hand with hers. She squeezed a little and Clarke smiled fondly at her. It’s not about _Echo_ , of course.

“ He will come back. And you’ll tell him” Madi whispered and Clarke nodded breathing in.

She just needed to be patient.

 

-

 

She sees them kissing and her heart is aching in a way she didn’t think it was possible. Madi isn’t looking, but she seems to know what’s happening. She clenches to Clarke’s shirt, hugging her. When Clarke looks at her again, Madi gives her a weak smile.

“ Told you it wasn't a _great character_ ” she says.

“ Promise me you won’t tell her that” Clarke chuckle.

“ I won’t. She will be crushed enough when Bellamy breaks up with her…”

“ Madi…”

“ He thought you were _dead_ , Clarke.”

Clarke can feel _his_ eyes on her, and she turns. She’s right. He’s looking at her. Echo is at his side, hand in hand, but he’s looking at _her_. His expression is unreadable.

“ He will find his way back to you. He always does”

She smiles at that, squeezing both Madi’s hands.

“ He does, doesn’t he?”   

Maybe she just has to be patient a little bit more.


End file.
